Captain Francis Cadell‘s Steamer Albury entered the Darling on 27 January 1859 and reached Mt Murchison in 8 days. Later the name was changed to Wilcannia meaning ‘a gap in the bank where flood waters escape’.

Their fossilised skeletons remain in the dry sand dunes around the Menindee lakes and have provided some of the most prolific and consistently early remnants of human existence anywhere in the world. Thus far archaeologists have positive evidence of occupation dating back 26,000 years – not much younger than the now famous neighbouring site, Lake Mungo.

The Murray–Darling basin is a large geographical area in the interior of southeastern Australia. The basin drains around one-seventh of the Australian land mass.

Menindee has a desert climate with an annual average rainfall of just 245.8 mm (9.6 in), Menindee is tied with Bourke in recording the hottest temperature in New South Wales, with a temperature of 49.7 °C (121.5 °F) recorded on 10 January 1939.

The Silver City Comet was a train service that operated from September 1937 until November 1989 between Parkes and Broken Hill for 52 years.